How to Channel Your Book

Lesson 6 : Spotting Signs and Using Metaphors

In this lesson, you will learn how to deepen the impact of your book and how channelling becomes a 24×7 activity, once you tune in.

Note that it’s not crucial you have finished the last lesson at this point but you should at least have made appointments to ‘meet your chapters’. You can use what you learn in this lesson, and the next, to make your writing resonate even more with your reader.

Once we tune into guidance, we get messages at all times of the day, sometimes in very strange and unexpected ways.

In this next video, I share two examples. The first is how I came up with an unexpected structure for my book, The Zone. The second is how I got the inspiration for the content of this lesson.

Task 1 : Designing Your Cover

The maxim ‘you can tell a book by its cover’ is expecially true in these connected days. With more and more books to choose from, as publishing has been democratised, authors have to vie for reader’s attention with eye-catching cover designs.

This video outlines a free association Mind Mapping process you can follow to get cover ideas.

Note, before you do this Mind Map, go for a walk as suggested in the video.

Once you spot your inspiration, create a free association Mind Map that expands on the key words from your book title and the metaphors you plan to use.

p.s. to find imagery you can use, search for Creative Commons image libraries and also there are many artists you can commission, or co-create with, for bespoke imagery, graphics and illustrations.

Just use your keywords while searching these image libraries and you’ll find loads of new ideas for your visual metaphors.

Task 2 : Writing Your Book Description

After being drawn in by the title of your book and the cover design and perhaps some reviews, potential readers of your book will probably next read the book description before they make a purchase.

This next video takes you through a worked example of how to use key words and take the reader through a sample of what the book has to offer.

Here’s the book description I wrote for Balanced Business with the key words highlighted. Note also I repeated the words ‘Balanced Business’ a few times but, hopefully, not over much.

Balanced Business Book Description

Task : Tap into the Eyes Open meditative state and channel your book description based on your key words and chosen metaphors.

Task 3 : Deconstructing a Metaphor

To be a good author, we should also be good readers. When we read, hear or see something we like, we should learn to emulate it.

For this last exercise in this lesson, I’d like you to listen to the visualisation below twice. Note, it uses a completely different set of metaphors and symbology from Balanced Business.

1. First, listen to this visualisation with your eyes closed and just indulge yourself in it and get the benefit from it.

2. Then listen to it again, have your eyes open and make notes, or Mind Map, the metaphors and structures I am using in it to invoke the change in state of the listener.